The Invention of Warmth
by MileauMay
Summary: After the Cullens leave in New Moon, Bella believes that she was deceived all along by her supposed love and family. One of the Cullens feels the same loneliness and returns, but will Bella let him back in?
1. Takes One to Know One

Disclaimer

NO HATING FROM READERS! I am not Stephanie Meyer or I would be writing that as my signature instead of Mileau May ******** (My last name is up to your imagination tops to anyone who actually gets it right) To reiterate, I'm not actual author.

I hate this town. I hate all of my supposed former friends. I hate Charlie and Jacob and Jessica and Ali….

The pain that comes with that thought is still as surprising and cold as the first time that I realized _they _were never coming back. I would laugh at odd mixture of longing and hatred towards _them_ if I could feel any emotion anyway. _They _even took that away from me. I'm not surprised by that anymore.

It took me a long time to realize that _they _were just using me as a little toy for cruel amusement. Who allows a young girl to be followed around by would be rapists for hours on end? What kind of psychic idiots would knowingly take a human to an area crawling with unfamiliar vampires? I can't believe I fell for their stupid excuses and acts. The only ones that were honest were Jasper and Rosalie. At least they never tried to hide their dislike of me. Everyone else is just a liar.

"Bells? Are you alright up there?" Charlie always sounds worried about me now. He shouldn't be. I never do anything stupid. In fact, I hardly do anything. One more point for them. I don't bother to answer.

The days all pass by and as I go down the stairs I have no doubt this day will be the same. Eat… check. Go to school… check. Ignore the pitying glances of classmates… check. Go home and make dinner… check. Fall asleep… check. Get woken by nightmares… check. So goes my life.

I was right. School was average as usual even though my grades are the best I've ever had. The spare time I've had between wondering why I wasn't good for them and being miserable in other ways gave me plenty of time to study up.

The weather outside is nice today, but I can't even scrounge up enough emotion to enjoy it. I would do chores, but it seems Charlie has already down dishes and laundry. He's probably afraid I'll drown in detergent or something. The way outside is second nature to me now, and the run I make to my favorite tree seems shorter than usual. I want to just sit down and melt into the earth. Perhaps… I'll just sit and think. Maybe even try enjoying life for a change.

I'm so stupid. This was a terrible idea, and even as I sit down I know it. The feelings that are just under the surface are always worse in the forest. I tried so hard to be perfect, and I failed. Tears are falling down my face. A hole is opening up in my chest that could not be more painful if a spike was driven through it. So I cry and cry and cry. Anybody that loves me doesn't in my head. I can't fall asleep for very long usually, but the exhaustion catches up to me. As I fall half asleep against the tree and tense waiting for my expected nightmare. I feel unexpectedly hopeful. For the first time in months, I have a real dream that is full of optimism. I curl against the cold, hard tree at my back and feel almost warm as it seems to embrace me back.


	2. Hello, Goodbye, Hello

Bella's eyes tightened as she turned against the sold surface of the tree that she was leaning against. She pressed her hands against it hoping to experience what she had just dreamed again. After months of trying and failing to act normal again the dream had seemed like a fall out of her reality and into something completely different. Something that was unbelievably nice and warm after what seemed like years of cold.

She reached forward to grasp the tree to at least feel something to pull her out of the headache she knew she was causing herself. She reached forward grasping for hard, crumpled tree bark. Only she never felt it.

The surface that she found was soft and cold; colder than a winter frozen tree anyway, it was a familiar texture too. It reminded her somewhat of a dream or something she'd almost forgotten. Her hands followed the shape upwards to a delicate substance that was also too familiar to her but one she couldn't quite describe. She was sure she almost remembered frustration and annoyance mingling in her till…

She gasped and opened her eyes but was too late. The loss of feeling left its wake on her as she worked herself up frantically and angrily. Whoever or _whatever_ she had been lying against had vanished into the early winter morning taking the feeling of belonging with them. She wanted to howl as she considered that she might have been lying against the one thing that she wanted to see again most in the world. She stumbled into the surrounding words muttering and grumbling to herself as though she was alone although she knew she wasn't.

She steeled herself and turned around. The momentary longing she'd had to see _them _again had vanished with whoever had cruelly returned to get her hopes up only to let her down. How very vampiric of them, how very characteristic, they stuck around to give her one good dream and left suddenly to drain the emotion she'd felt with them. She paused at the edge of the forest to peer into its depth once more and halfway hope that someone would be there to apologize or at least have enough courage to announce their selves. Throwing a few rocks in righteous anger and disappointment, she turned back towards her house. At least she could catch half of school today. It couldn't be past noon. This morning's episode filled her with something like energy at least and some anger which seemed better than nothing.

She never would look in the right place it seemed. The pair of yellow eyes that followed her back to the little house narrowed as grumbled and cursed in a tone that quiet as it was could still be heard. It was unusual to hear someone as placid and mild tempered as she had been to be so simply violently angry. Perhaps… the eyes closed in concentration. Yes, it would a good idea to stick around and find out what would happen after this little encounter.

Many days later, she had given up on whatever she had seen in the forest. It was probably her imagination and as she considered it her anger started to grow and then fade. She really was cracked because of them. It wasn't enough to leave her emotionally scarred. No, they had to leave her completely hallucinatory. Her hand tightened around the fork she was holding as she dug a little deeper into her plate.

Charlie looked at her silently. Normally, he would be concerned at such a tense mood from his daughter, but really he supposed that this was an improvement over the past couple months. He had considered sending her back to her mother's house but with a moving schedule and no set living place there for her as well as an empty, cold glare when he broached the subject with her he had decided to give her more time to adjust to a life without her beloved boyfriend. His lip curled slightly; if she had just _listened _to him she wouldn't be in this mess. He frowned knowing that he hadn't really warned her either. Sure, he knew that the Cullens had been slightly odd and perhaps more introverted than the usual kids around town, but he had never imagined Bella getting mixed up with them. They had even seemed nice enough a good doctor and a nice family with all those kids. Still, his frown deepened it was obvious that Bella had felt the same way and was sorely disappointed. He sighed as Bella got up still with an unhappy, tense look on her face. At least, it was something.

Bella glanced at Charlie as he sighed. She really was sorry that he was affected by her own loneliness and bad mood. Misery really did love company then. She echoed him sighing as she filled the dishwasher with her dirty plate and the used cooking tools left on the counter. Groaning, she made her way upstairs. Looking over her homework she realized how badly even the teachers thought of her as she looked at the comments that all seemed to say the same thing. Wow, you really are pathetic without her aren't you? Gee, it's like you have no life. Bella stared at the ceiling in her room. She was tempted to agree with them.

She rolled over and stared at the window thinking of nothing in particular. Until, she felt something strange. She got up to look outside carefully. The feeling of something watching was unnerving. She stood still as she saw a pair of glowing, animal like eyes in the darkness.

Then perhaps as a sign of her insanity or perhaps from relief she smiled. She turned around and walked back towards her bed. Sitting down, she called out to whatever lurked in the darkness. Half of her wished that someone had just come to eat her, and she paused and disregarded what the other half wanted.

Suddenly, she heard the noise that had been so familiar to her that her mouth watered in anticipation as a foot appeared on her floor. Then, a leg was visible through ripped, unwashed pants. The person standing in her room looked at her calmly as if having every right to be in her room. Bella looked silently at the person then threw back her head and laughed harder than she felt she had in more months.

"You weren't who I thought would come at all." She paused in her laughter to see a stricken, alarmed face. The anger, frustration, and utter loneliness took hold of her as she paused taking a deep breath and smiling threw a glass picture frame off of her nightstand right at them.


	3. Recollections

Emmett didn't even flinch as the picture frame shattered against his chest. He did; however, look very sadly at the frame on the floor. He remembered picking it out with the rest of the family. Alice and Edward had argued over the exact color it had to be; while Emmett merely through suggestions into the midst as the rest of the family had looked on in amusement. The good times seemed to have disappeared after they had left the town… after they had left her.

He had personally disagreed with the choice to leave. The thought of leaving the girl he considered his sister with no protection from the rogues _and_ werewolves that were literally sniffing for Bella's blood was horrifying to say the least. Still, with both Esme and Carlisle persuaded by Edward along with the surprising vote of Alice, it had been obvious that he was outvoted.

Slowly, the family had drifted apart as they moved rapidly from city to city and town to town across the world. Edward had lost himself so to speak; he intermittently chased Victoria and drove himself to the brink with self pity when she just evaded him. Similarly, Alice had chosen to drown herself in clothes and fashion when not tending to his pity party. The rest of the family had for the most part accepted it or at least hiding their feelings behind literally granite faces, Esme, Carlisle, and Rosalie were going on with their normal lives. Excepting, of course, the brief moments where they would call for a missing family member or ask a question only to find the thin air behind them would not materialize a loved one.

Still, even this would have been acceptable. Emmett had no doubt that eventually the cards would fold. The family realizing that the only option to be a _family_ would be moving back to Forks and regaining and protecting their final member. All of it would be fine. Only one member of the family had not been satisfied.

Jasper had suffered immensely for his actions, both literally and figuratively. Emmett had called together the remaining members of the family and forcibly sat through (or on) him through varying tasks that involved blood whether through an open window and a sliced thumb; until, finally Jasper had been able to withstand being outside a hospital room with only minimal difficulty. This had done nothing for him emotionally though. Jasper knew that his actions had irreversibly changed their lives. The guilt ate at him like he was the one being sucked dry of life instead of the animals that lived forests and parks around their new homes and apartments.

After months of the silent torture that was now his home, Emmett had decided that they needed some brotherly bonding. Carlisle and Esme had merely shrugged as Rosalie pouted about his absence, but Alice had peered oddly at him for not even a second. Shrugging her slight shoulders finally she seemed to be agreeable to the idea. Together, they dragged Jasper out of the old library which seemed to be his nest of meditation with taunts and bribes until he relented. The family had waved as they set off like they were adventuring new land instead of the same paths they would invariably end up on.

They had jaunted and pushed their way from coast to coast trying to find which way pulled them best. It hadn't been a difficult choice. Jasper had wanted to see his old home; Emmett had wanted to try Texas Longhorn. After, they meandered around the Western coast, and quickly found themselves nearing a place neither was sure they wanted to visit. The coast had turned cold and gray as they continued north; as they continued back to the town that is seemed they had only left.

Finally, there had been nowhere else to go to. They both stood in front of the old, white house solemnly. Jasper stood rigidly as they had approached the window on the side. He had taken a deep breath only to realize that they had missed an important fact through their hesitation and wariness. Bella was not in the house.

Grinning at his brother, he had set off into the woods, hot on her trail smelling and searching for his lost sister. They laughed together as they ran. It had been too long since they had been home and as much as their memory allowed them to remember in perfect detail the places they had been it was not quite the same feeling as actually_ being_ there. Yes, it had been far too long…

Suddenly, he halted. The stop was so sudden that, were it not for vampiric reflexes, Jasper would have crashed into his back. The world tilted as he saw that he had finally, _finally,_ found his sister. She was sleeping against a tree that he had never bothered to read in the gardening books that Esme and Alice had bought ages ago. Her head lolled to the side, but he could see her discomfort from his viewpoint even as her body went tense as the cold air flew past her. Tentatively, he stepped forward looking between his now frozen brother and the girl on the ground.

"It's all right. I know her." Jasper said calmly after a moment. Emmett nodded pleased. He had suspected that Jasper could be closer to her than other humans due to her familiarity. He inched forward quietly and efficiently until she coughed once or twice. They both froze, and to his great shock, Jasper suddenly moved and was beside Bella in an almost embrace.

"She's cold." Jasper's face barely twitched as Bella leaned closer to him. Emmett chuckled inwardly at the entirely bemused look on his face as she nearly stuffed her face into his jacket. She must have been freezing to want warmth from two dusty vampires. She murmured again, and Emmett laughed aloud at the now frantic look on Jasper's face. She had moved herself directly on top of his legs and wrapped her arms around him limiting his options of escape from her human death grip. Emmett rolled on the ground laughing as Jasper shot him a simultaneously nasty and pleading look.

"You're fine." He mouthed at him still chuckling. He had faith in his abilities. Jasper could handle this. Sighing, Jasper leaned against the tree bark as he watched his brother make faces at him from across the clearing knowing he was doomed to the situation for at least a couple of hours.

Finally, dawn rose against the sky. The pink and gray streams of light seemed to set something off in Bella's sleep. Slowly, she turned her face against Jasper's jacket to hide her eyes, and quickly opened them again as she realized there was someone else that was near. It was too late. They both watched as she stalked back to her house. Well, Jasper had watched anyway. He had nearly fallen off the thirty foot tree that they had been hiding on after hearing some of Bella's choicer expressions about what her opinions of vampires and their anatomy were like.

The days seemed much quicker in Forks. He had returned to their former house hoping to see some item left behind as he considered the place affectionately. There were good memories in this town. Occasionally, he ventured off with Jasper to spy and discuss the news and gossip that had occurred. More so, he listened to Jasper give an increasingly worried diatribe about Bella. The gossip had said that Bella had been withdrawn after their departure, and Emmett could understand this because of his own family bonds to her but he doubted that she was _really_ as bad as they were claiming.

Jasper convinced him to check on her some days later as they discussed their plans for returning to the family or continuing north to the Denali's coven. He wanted to check on her one last time before they continued on for updates on Victoria and perhaps apologize to assuage his guilt. Quickly, they started to the Swan house finding themselves in the same positions they had days ago. They looked at each other before Jasper inclined his head towards the window indicating that he should enter the room first. Emmett nodded enthusiastically and made to leap forward when she peered out warily of the room.

She looked around again with narrow eyes and finally lit upon them catching Jasper's eyes in the bushes. Her mouth opened slightly as she stared down. Finally, she smiled widely at them, and they could hear her walk back slowly towards her bed. They looked at each again as if to say it was too late to change their minds, and Emmett leaped towards the window.

Catching himself on the sill, he carefully lifted his foot, then leg, and finally body into the room so as to not break anything. Bella was still sitting on the bed. Her eyes were vacant as she took him in from head to toe.

Suddenly, she threw back her head and laughed. He shuddered. This laugh was not normal; it was not Bella's happy, excited laugh. Rather, it reminded him of scraping nails on a chalkboard rather grating to his sensitive ears and desperation. He stared dismayed at her as she rocked back and forth on her bed. She seemed entirely unhinged as she finally stopped laughing with her mouth still open and something dangerously unbalanced lurking in her eyes. He doubted that she even realized her actions as she finally opened her mouth.

"You weren't who I thought would come at all." Her voice cracked as she glared at him, and he could hear Jasper's vampiric words of alarm as she threw a picture frame at him. He stared now at the frame on the ground, as the entire journey he had taken back to her flashed before his eyes. She laughed again as he sat bewildered on the floor, and he could hear Jasper crouching on the ground outside preparing to jump inside. The wild laughter seemed more dangerous now. Like her eyes, they seemed angry and disappointed and sad all at once. Still, as Emmett sat on the floor staring at the frame, he did not notice his brother crawl in attempting to make sense of the situation or make sense of the current situation. Rather, he recalled vividly the expression on Alice's face as they set off. Her wave had been slow compared to her normally energetic goodbyes and Emmett could not help but remember due to his perfect recall that the look on her face had been odd. Regret and Sadness had flashed over the elfin face so quickly that he had disregarded it. Now, he could not help but wonder if she had known.


End file.
